THE GOD AND MAKER OF ALL THINGS MAKES HIMSELF YOURS
Sermon Text, St. John 1:1-14 (v. 1-3, 14). In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. … And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
In Christ, who is the Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, dear fellow redeemed: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” Genesis 1:1.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”
See what St. John did there? He did a Genesis 1. It starts the same: “In the beginning.” But where Genesis 1:1 says: “In the beginning God …,” John says more: “In the beginning the Word …”
We’re used to thinking of “the Word” being the Bible, words on the page. But here we learn that there is something called “the Word” that predates the written Word. Or should I say, not somethingcalled the Word, but someone. For the Word is a He. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him …”
The Word is God, as John writes. This is the Second Person of the Trinity: God the Son. These verses say Christ is eternal. He existed from the begin-ning. He was creating all things. Psalm 33 says “by the Word of the Lord” – the Word, this He who was in the beginning – “the heavens were made.”
In Proverbs 8 the Word calls Himself Wisdom; speaking as a He, as God, He says: “I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth. I was brought forth, while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields … Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and My delight was with the sons of men.” (Prov 8:23, 25b-26, 30-31)
This is Christ! We heard that from the beginning He was the Father’s delight, and that even in the beginning – at the creation – He delighted in the inhabited world made by Him with the Father, andHe delighted in the children of men, the human race, all people, which includes you.
So these words in John 1 are not only talking about God in eternity, disconnected from you; Proverbs 8 shows it’s very personal! This delight that Christ the eternal Word has in “the children of men” is revealing the love of God for you in Christ Jesus, which the Bible says in the New Testament is since “before the foundation of the world” and “before time began” (Eph 1:4, 2Ti 1:9). His great love is not just located up in the heavens. He locates it on earth, as we’ll see in this chapter and as we celebrate this Christmas Day.
But now, although Christ dwells in unapproachable light and His glory is infinite, darkness comes into the picture: the darkness of sin and unbelief. We don’t live “in the beginning.” We live in the world affected by the Fall into sin.
We live in a world that calls what is evil, good; a world that calls what is good and true, evil and wrong. It loves the darkness and calls it enlightenment. It hates the Light, and calls it darkness and ignorance. Ever since sin came into the world through Satan in Adam’s fall, it’s been this way. “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
The problem is that word “flesh” that comes at the end of this reading. When we hear that “the Word became flesh,” that’s a very good thing for us. But it’s a good thing for us, precisely because of the problems our flesh causes us; Jesus comes to do something about these problems by taking up our flesh.
Because our flesh is sinful. Ever since the Fall into sin, everyone who is born of humans is born with a sinful flesh. That means that we are by nature unable and unwilling to believe in God; as we hear in verses 12 and 13, those who believe in the name of Jesus, who are children of God, are “not born of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.” This is why “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and [yet] the world did not know Him. He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.”
Here in John 1, we see what the sinful flesh does: refuses to know Him, refuses to receive Him, unwilling to come out of the darkness.
The sinful flesh – the sin in us – is what leads us to do all the sins that we commit on the outside. It leads us to not do the good God wills us to do for others. Romans 7 says: “In me – that is, in my flesh – nothing good dwells.” The sinful flesh is one of the enemies of our faith, along with the devil and the world. The devil tempts us by appealing to our flesh. Also, because we have this sinful flesh, and live in this fallen world, our bodies decay and must die.
All this darkness, not only in the world but in ourselves. But God does not leave us – does not leave you – in darkness, not the darkness of unbelief, not the darkness of sin, not any spiritual darkness; but what comes to you is “the true Light which gives light to every man.” He’s the Light who gives light!
He still delights in the inhabited world and in the children of men. He delights in you. How do you know? This is what the one God is like: He does not stay apart and distant from people who do things that displease Him. In that way He is not like us. He doesn’t leave you guessing how He feels about you or what your relationship to Him is like.
Here is what it’s like: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is what the Lord says about how He feels about you. It’s all compassion.
This is the Christmas-Story verse in John’s Gospel. The soft little baby flesh, the mouth that cried, the stomach that felt hunger pangs, the little fingers that felt Joseph’s beard, the eyes that gazed into His mother’s eyes – whose flesh is this? It’s yours. He became like us. He assumed our human flesh, without sin, to make us like Him: holy, pure, and without sin in God’s sight. His Godhead did not become less; He added our flesh, apart from sin.
He is the true Godhead Incarnate. “Incarnate” means “in the flesh.” As many problems as our sinful flesh causes, it didn’t repulse Him, He didn’t stay away. He became flesh, but without the sin. He is true Man, born of the virgin Mary; but because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is still true God, begotten of the Father from eternity. And so He is your Savior.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is where God’s great love is seen, but not only seen: located. He locates it in Christ Jesus, in the Word made flesh, in His body.
This is love, God’s great love for you. As we sang in that hymn that’s 17 centuries old: “He is found in human fashion” – He became man – “that the race of Adam’s children, doomed by Law to endless woe, may not henceforth die and perish in the depths of hell below, evermore and evermore.” He came to “dwell among us.” He didn’t throw off our flesh at first opportunity. He came, “death and sorrow here to know.”
It may be hard for other people to understand you, to understand what you go through, to walk in your shoes. But Jesus – who came to share your own flesh – He understands, He knows in the deepest sense, He came to share this with you; as Hebrews 2 says, He partakes of flesh and blood so that He will destroy the devil’s power over you and death’s power over your body, and so He can help you when you are being tempted or afflicted. That’s what it means that “the Word became flesh.”
What do you do with this? St. John writes that you “receive Him,” by faith. This faith is the gift of God. So people who don’t trust in God above all things, who do not act like His children, receive the gift of faith in Jesus. Then you are “children of God” – by faith, not by works.
This faith comes by hearing God’s written Word. But you’re also hearing the eternal Word in human flesh, Jesus. You can’t be afraid of His voice! He lies in a manger, straps Himself to a cross, and lays Himself in your tomb from which He will be your resurrection, saying: “I am the Lord your God. See, not what I demand of you, but what I do for you.” When He rose from the dead, He rose in His body – the human flesh He shares with you. And He will raise all flesh on the last day and make your body like His glorious body.
He has redeemed all flesh. This gives everyone dignity. When “the Word became flesh,” He didn’t become less than He already was, but He added our nature to Himself and made us more than what we are. He has raised up everyone, even if they don’t know it or have forgotten.
Shouldn’t this affect how we look at each other? There can’t be any singing “Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,” while looking down on any human body He came to save. Nor can there be any thoughts of peace and brotherhood at Christmastime, that’s divorced and separated from the “only-begotten ”One who’s made each human body worthy of being loved.
He has redeemed your body, together with your soul. The Lord loves all flesh. He loves not only the souls but the bodies He has made – so much that He “became flesh,” became a helpless Babe, to redeem and sanctify your body. He did this for everyone. For every man and every woman, every boy and every girl. For the naughty and the nice. For the one who’s popular and the one everyone forgets. For the faithful churchgoer and the one who’s not coming. For those who are easy to love and those who disappoint us. For you who are baptized, and they who still need to be. For you. For me.
Let creation praise its Lord evermore and evermore! Amen.